Tuesday, June 12, 2012

India.Arie, Gramps Morgan - “Therapy”


  We start out with a guy jumping off a small cliff into some sparkly water, with us unaware at this point that such a thing will become a major theme in the video. Cut to India in the jungle somewhere, sporting a very colorful outfit and carrying a guitar that appears to be made out of cracked mirrors. She’s very pleased to be singing for us, raising one of her arms in a triumphant move full of success and independence, thus establishing the second theme of the video: vibrant flowing garments that match your eye-shadow can make a person very, very happy.

   We get a few shots of some guy climbing a really high rock tower, but before we can ask him why he might be doing that we cut to India in another outfit, standing near a beautiful bay in a fetching orange outfit, strumming her guitar and releasing the music within her. Somebody should probably tell her that it kind of hurts our eyes when the sun hits her mirrored guitar, but that’s really a minor quibble when everything else around her is so pretty.

  We check on Climber Guy, and yep, he’s almost at the top of that tower thing, high above the water, then we have more images of the Indias dancing in the woods and strumming by the sea. Then we get introduced to another flavor of India, this one driving a car that has been painted with pink-based camouflage while she wears a matching outfit. No indication of where she might be headed but, as we have come to expect by this point in the video, she’s very happy to be in control of a colorful vehicle.

  Next up is version 4.0 of India, this one in a comparatively subdued earth-tone ensemble as she plucks her strings in another part of the forest, followed by a long-shot of Climber Guy leaping from the top of the rock formation and plunging toward the dappling waters. (Let me make it very clear that I will never be doing something like that. Just in case you were wondering.)

  Now that we have introduced most of our major characters, we roll into an extended montage of the various Indias and a growing troop of muscular men who are very happy to leap from various outcroppings into the gentle waves of the ocean. It’s nice to see that chivalry is not completely dead, if men are willing to mix gravity and wetness to show their appreciation for womanhood and festive song.

  Speaking of expressing your love, we eventually get to a slightly-startling scene where Earth India has her hands stretched heavenward whilst a man stands behind her and uses his muscular arms to essentially align her planets. Before we can confirm that one of them remembered to bring along hanky-panky protection, we cut back to the montage of leaping men and shimmering Indies espousing musical poetry.

  And we stay in this mode for a while, with the flowing couture and the plunging males. Camouflage India seems to be the most emotionally-invested part of this stretch, as she powerfully communes with the steering wheel of her pink-splashed vehicle, but she’s followed closely by Orange India with that mirrored guitar that can burn your retinas out when the choreography is just right.

  Eventually we get around to visiting a local bar / art house / something, where a new India is performing in front of a microphone, this time accented by green eye-shadow and a glistening blouse. Oh, and there’s a man performing with her who is probably Gramps Morgan, but he’s not holding a sign or anything so it’s not really clear. In any case, they seem to be enjoying themselves, to the point of standing a bit more closely to one another than random duet partners really should, even some fondling, so there might be a juicy back-story here.

  The people up in this joint and very happy to be here, regardless of the relationship status of the singing duo, and there’s a festive air of stress-release, presumed alcohol consumption, and aggressively-supportive dancing. We briefly check back in with the other Indias and the acrobatic men in their lives, but it’s obvious that the real place to be is at the Love Shack, especially when one shirtless man begins executing some amazing gymnastics moves that could prove life-threatening if people don’t keep an eye on him.

  And that’s basically how we wrap things up. We have a final visit with all of the Indias and the thrill-seeking men, and everyone seems to be doing just fine. (There’s one glaring bit with an awkward pale-skinned man failing miserably at the sea-jumping thing, no idea what that was all about.) The final shot is of Camouflage India’s happy car pulling up outside the Shack of Love and Handsprings, which means that there are now theoretically two Indias in the same location, and the video has to end because trick photography can be really expensive, especially on a tropical island where the men folk never get dressed or dry off…


Click Here to Watch this Video on YouTube.


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